US Senate throws weight behind war, Gitmo

The US Senate has passed a $91.3 billion war-spending bill for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan but denied money for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison.

The Senate voted 86-3, passing the bill on Thursday.

After working out differences with the House of Representatives, which approved a $96.7 billion version of the bill, a compromise should go to President Barack Obama in June.

The Senate bill includes $22 billion for military hardware like F-22 fighter jets and $4.2 billion for armored vehicles.

If approved, it would boost total approved spending for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to over $900 billion.

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The US president is sending more than 20,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. The annual cost of the war in Afghanistan is projected to exceed the cost of fighting in Iraq for the first time next year.

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

The number of US forces in Afghanistan is expected to be nearly 68,000 by the end of the year. When support forces are tacked on, the number will be more than double the US force at the end of 2008.

The measure also provides the International Monetary Fund with a new $100 billion credit line and provides $1.5 billion to fight a potential swine flu epidemic.

On the closure of the Guantanamo detention center in Cuba, however, Senate Democrats opposed the president and joined Republicans to drop the $80 million requested by the administration.